You said they usually happen in isolated areas...that isn't true.
Neither is central Ontario.
Tornados are the scariest natural disaster, right?
- Thread starter Spinluck
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True, but you stated tsunamis and earthquakes and Volacnoes happen in isolated areas for the most part. The entire west coast of the United States (and South America, Japan, SE Asia etc) is not really an isolated area.
I was going to say tsunami, but then I got to the 2:05 point in that video, jesus christ
You can't "predict" a tornado. You can only identify areas that contain a high probability of creating a tornado. A tornado might pop right the hell out of nowhere and mess shit up without any warning. Or you might get a Tornado Warning from the National Weather Service and have 15-30 minutes to prepare as the local metereologist talks about a circulation feature that could become tornadic.
Counter-point: A lightning storm in a volcanic eruption.
Zeus is PISSED
A tornado wrecked the majority of the homes of people who went to my high school.
They called us to let us know that we still had school the next day.
I did go but most people naturally went "Fuck that shit". It was the emptiest I ever saw the school. It was a poor as fuck area too so it took ages for the recovery efforts to finish.
The thing about hurricanes is you have lots of time to prepare, evacuate if needed, etc. With tornadoes they just come out of nowhere and upend people's lives. You have no time to mentally prepare yourself for it so it is a huge shock.
Earthquakes sound even worse though.
They called us to let us know that we still had school the next day.
I did go but most people naturally went "Fuck that shit". It was the emptiest I ever saw the school. It was a poor as fuck area too so it took ages for the recovery efforts to finish.
The thing about hurricanes is you have lots of time to prepare, evacuate if needed, etc. With tornadoes they just come out of nowhere and upend people's lives. You have no time to mentally prepare yourself for it so it is a huge shock.
Earthquakes sound even worse though.
"If the right conditions are met" applies as much to earthquakes and hurricanes as it does to tornados. Your logic is flawed.
If we're talking sheer numbers, disease epidemics beat everything else historically. The 1918 Flu pandemic killed over 50 million people, 3% of the global population.
Floods are among the most frequent killers. They not only cause immense immediate loss of life, but also have horrific long-term impacts. Drinking water is contaminated, crops drowned, people are forced to evacuate for months to years, disease spreads like wildfire. When we talk about the damage caused by hurricanes, it's the storm surge that's the main problem, not the winds. And when an earthquake happens near a coastal region, it's the tsunami that is the real danger both short and long-term.
Large volcano eruptions can do a lot. In 1816, the explosion of Tambora created "The year without a summer", where you had July and August frost killing crops as far south as Virginia. The event caused famine across the northern hemisphere. And of course we have Yellowstone bubbling and waiting to explode some day under the western USA, an event that could easily kill as many people immediately as the 1918 Flu and then many more from the extreme climate change that would follow.
Floods are among the most frequent killers. They not only cause immense immediate loss of life, but also have horrific long-term impacts. Drinking water is contaminated, crops drowned, people are forced to evacuate for months to years, disease spreads like wildfire. When we talk about the damage caused by hurricanes, it's the storm surge that's the main problem, not the winds. And when an earthquake happens near a coastal region, it's the tsunami that is the real danger both short and long-term.
Large volcano eruptions can do a lot. In 1816, the explosion of Tambora created "The year without a summer", where you had July and August frost killing crops as far south as Virginia. The event caused famine across the northern hemisphere. And of course we have Yellowstone bubbling and waiting to explode some day under the western USA, an event that could easily kill as many people immediately as the 1918 Flu and then many more from the extreme climate change that would follow.
My research, based entirely on watching Disaster Movies, is that you'll be fine as long as you don't live in New York, Washington or San Francisco. San Fran has to be the most destroyed city in movie history.
I would qualify that more as a space disaster than natural...but yeah, that's a big one.
Tsunamis, earthquakes and tornados all are terrifying, not sure which one I'd put in first, all terrible ways to die or lose everything.
I would say volcano eruption, because a large enough eruption can alter the planet's entire climate on top of causing local chaos. Also large impact events from celestial objects would be up there.
I've lived in Florida most my life and I've been through several hurricanes but I've always found them more annoying than anything, it depends where you live more anything. Tornados are scary but you can see them coming. For me, I find Earthquakes the most scary because they can just come out of fucking nowhere and send you down into the damn abyss. Fuck that.
The entire Pacific Northwest of North America is in serious danger of a devastating tsunami at some point in the future. This includes cities like Seattle, Portland, Victoria, and Vancouver.
Not to mention the horrific devastation tsunamis have wrought in recent times on Indonesia and Japan. Over 200 thousand people died in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
As someone who has lived through an 8.8 earthquake in Richter scale (in my zone it was VIII in Mercalli, which means it was still god damn strong), I'd say that IF you are in a place that has the right infrastructure, the kind that can resist quakes, it's not that terrible. My house simply had a couple cracks in the plaster, and sure, it was annoying that a lot of things fell down, but I know that I can withstand a quake there. Worst thing was one of the outer walls that was badly build, it cracked but we reinforced it afterwards.
More recent earthquakes in Chile haven't had much victims, thankfully, and as for infrastructure damage.... Well, everything can be rebuilt.
I don't think you have the same certainties with tornadoes, much less with tsunamis. All those will rip your place apart, no matter how well build is it.
More recent earthquakes in Chile haven't had much victims, thankfully, and as for infrastructure damage.... Well, everything can be rebuilt.
I don't think you have the same certainties with tornadoes, much less with tsunamis. All those will rip your place apart, no matter how well build is it.
Holy shit, that's one of the most intense tornado videos I've ever seen.
I mean what can you really do in that situation if you have no basement or anything? Basically find a room in the middle of your house and pray you don't get crushed or whisked away by it.
Can't believe he filmed it and survived.
Scariest? Maybe. That's kind of in the eye of the beholder.
Most devastating? Not by a long shot, by any measure.
Most devastating? Not by a long shot, by any measure.
It would be interesting to see these numbers as a percentage of the population affected by an event.
Because naturally more modern events are gonna look more disastrous since we have a lot more population world wide now.
As someone born in the US Midwest: lol. They're not literally a laughing matter, but they're so much more avoidable and predictable than, say, an earthquake or volcano eruption.
I agree with the posters who said that it all depends on what you can get used to. I've lived in tornado alley in the US all my life so I've learned to live with the idea that every spring the weather equivalent of Godzilla could suddenly drop out of the sky. But if I was ever in an area that had a tsunami warning I would run up to the top of the tallest building and not come down for a week.
I think the best bet is to get your mattress and place it on top of you in the bathtub.
I lived through the Northridge earthquake and I find tornadoes more terrifying. They feel like impending doom and often level everything in their path. I have never been around one but it's one of my reoccurring nightmares for some reason. Along with Tsunamis.
Yellowstone could easily kill hundreds of millions. You have the immediate eruption wiping out a couple entire states and many more getting covered by an absurd amount of ash, which would include cities like Denver and Salt Lake City. But even worse, Volcanoes release sulfates that block sunlight, causing immediate extreme global cooling. We would likely have at least a couple years of worldwide famine, not to mention the complete collapse of the United States as a country and a massive global recession.
Luckily, Yellowstone erupting probably won't happen in our lifetimes.
If you have a bath tub you can curl up inside of it and placing a mattress on top to protect you from falling debris. It's one of the more common survival tactics for people without basements.
I think tsuami for me. Tornado atleast you can see and atleast have a slightchance of warning and avoiding, volcanic eruptions are scary but very unlikely, and earthquakes could be terryfying but in the right infrastructure can be safe and mitigate damage
Aint nothing more terrifying then the fucking ocean deciding it wants to come on land with you. Destructive, engulfing, and very little way too escape. Plus the fact that water remains there for ages plus additional flooding
Aint nothing more terrifying then the fucking ocean deciding it wants to come on land with you. Destructive, engulfing, and very little way too escape. Plus the fact that water remains there for ages plus additional flooding
Standard practice if you don't have an underground shelter or basement is to shelter in the most interior portion of the lowest level of your home, putting as many walls between yourself and the tornado as possible. If you have an interior bathroom, the tub is usually a good spot. If not, then an interior closet or hallway will be your best bet. Cover yourself with cushions/mattress. Wear long sleeves, jeans and shoes.
What you don't do is stand in a window on what looks like an upper floor and shoot video of the damned thing like the guy in the video did.
Volcanologist roll their eyes everytime someone brings up thinking Yellowstone will erupt soon.
You'll be pretty well hidden under all the rocks, ash and debris. They'll likely won't find you for decades.
Central Ontario isn't immune to bad weather. It may be before your time, but Barrie got hit pretty hard by a tornado a few decades ago. Cottage country is flooded pretty badly right now, too. Here in Toronto, we were crippled by an ice storm five years ago. Trees and power lines down everywhere. My building didn't have power for five days.
You can't predict a tornado, just the weather that supports them which is like a weekly thing from late spring until fall around here.
Living in Alabama, the slightest change in weather can make a tornado likely.
1 thunderstorm can roll into an area and just start slinging off tornados like crazy
In Alabama i'd say its like weekly average that a thunderstorm rolls in and just starting spraying bullets across the state and the way they move in my area you don't know till about 15 minutes beforehand if its hitting your neighborhood or not.
I mean, it certainly has a chance to erupt; it's an active volcano. It's just that the chance is very low. Worrying about Yellowstone erupting is about as productive as worrying about a large meteor hitting your house.
On the other hand, something like the Cascadia tsunami is basically going to happen relatively soon. It's just a matter of when and how prepared the Pacific Northwest will be.
If it takes a while to find you, at least you could look very nice. Volcanic eruptions can produce some amazing fossils.
Well he survived it, but his wife (that was downstairs in the kitchen) sadly didn't, seems like that size of tornado it was basically up to chance.
I'd give the edge to tornadoes due to their unpredictability and potential for insane destruction.
One of the most fascinating tornadoes is the one that hit Jarrell, TX in 1994. To this day, some meteorologists insist that had an EF6 category existed, the Jarrell tornado would be one of them.
One of the most fascinating tornadoes is the one that hit Jarrell, TX in 1994. To this day, some meteorologists insist that had an EF6 category existed, the Jarrell tornado would be one of them.
As someone who lived in Iowa for years, one of the scariest things about a tornado is when you're outside and the sky turns that sickly greenish brown. Even before the sirens go off, you can sense the dread in the air and you have the immediate instinct to hide. When people talk about animals sensing natural disasters, I have to imagine it's something similar.
My town got hit by a tornado last year. It was an EF3 which is not the strongest, but it destroyed so much that hasn't even began to be rebuild, a year later. It will take many years to get back to where we were. Not to mention it destroyed so many trees, old trees. That for some reason makes me the saddest. We had a lot of people come and help that first week to clear all the debris. So many cars and buildings were damaged. Thankfully no one was killed.
However, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes seem more terrifying to me. The scale of those is a lot bigger than a tornado. All of these natural occurrences are terrifying.
However, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes seem more terrifying to me. The scale of those is a lot bigger than a tornado. All of these natural occurrences are terrifying.
Ya, but Earthquakes might give them a run for their money. Tsunami's are pretty terrifying too. Floods are up there.
Yeah, plague of locusts might be worse too.
But like how many significant meteorite impacts have their been in the last 100 years?
Yeah, plague of locusts might be worse too.
But like how many significant meteorite impacts have their been in the last 100 years?
I'm aware, I actually think Tornadoes though are overall more dangerous as they can happen anywhere in the world and are unpredictable compared to most other disasters.